Holiday List No. 2: Agents of Impact answer The Calls to chart new paths to progress

Greetings, Agents of Impact! If you missed any of our look-aheads to 2026, you can find them all here.

Agents of Impact convene on ImpactAlpha.

Across this year’s Agents of Impact video calls, thousands of Agents of Impact showed up to interrogate assumptions, pressure-test strategies and surface what’s working in the face of shifting political, economic and market conditions.

From the resurgence of impact-first investing among family offices to pragmatic pathways for shared prosperity, climate finance and ownership, these calls captured an impact investing community that is both sober about constraints and energized by opportunity.

The guests were stellars, the conversations were lively and the chat was hopping with valuable connections.

Below, catch up on this year’s Agents of Impact calls you may have missed — and revisit the conversations that resonated with you the most:

The surprising resurgence of impact-first investing

For at least some wealthy families, it’s impact on. Hundreds of Agents of Impact showed up for Agents of Impact Call No. 73, featuring Trimtab Impact’s Caleb Ballou, Spring Point Partners’ Margot Kane, Ceniarth’s Greg Neichin and A to Z Impact’s Alex Evangelides and MacArthur Foundation’s Debra Schwartz. “Family offices have flexibility. They can be patient, they can be risk-tolerant,” Schwartz said. “We have to have impact-first as well as finance-first strategies.”

• Read more and watch the replay.

Worker solutions, community insurance and other strategies for shared prosperity

Capital and services for businesses that employ working-class people in working-class places equals impact, says Damien Dwin of Washington, DC-based Lafayette Square on this Agents of Impact Call. Joining Dwin were Keepingly’s Daniel Smith, Capitalize Good’s Andrea Levere, and InnSure’s Charlie Sidoti. The call featured plays in ImpactAlpha’s growing “Playbook for shared prosperity”, including tools to manage and preserve homeownership as a vehicle for intergenerational wealth, and community-embedded insurance to help residents weather emergencies and capture the economic value of their climate resilience efforts. 

• Read more and watch the replay.

More of the right kind of capital for growth firms in Africa

Tech-enabled ventures in healthcare, education, agriculture and financial services are driving economic growth and job creation in Africa. “This segment of the market offers the best, most attractive risk-adjusted returns across the capital stack,” Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes of Lagos-based Aruwa Capital Management said on this Call on catalyzing capital for “growth funds” financing such “growth firms.” WIC Capital’s Evelyne Dioh Simpa, Mirepa Investment Advisors’ Enyonam Kakane, and Kenya Climate Ventures’ Victor Ndiege joined Rhodes and the Collaborative for Frontier Finance’s Drew von Glahn for the discussion.

• Keep reading and catch the replay.

Policies for shared prosperity

Community investing. Opportunity Zones. Affordable housing tax credits. Amid the political headwinds and pushback, impact investors see opportunities for bipartisan action on common sense solutions that support broad-based prosperity. “Quick wins are not small wins – they’re essential building blocks,” said John Cochrane of the US Impact Investing Alliance, which co-hosted ImpactAlpha’s Call No. 72, “Opportunities for policy action and investing in shared prosperity.”

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Green lenders are all dressed up and ready to roll

The deals pencil. The pipeline is vetted. The projects are shovel-ready. This Agents of Impact Call surfaced a huge financing opportunity for impact and other private investors. Community lenders and green banks that had been set to deploy $20 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund have a pipeline of deals representing billions of dollars that could move forward without the infusion of federal funding. “The whole reason we exist is to lean into these challenges and opportunities when others lean out,” said Beth Bafford of Climate United. Kresge Foundation’s Aaron Seybert, Justice Climate Fund’s Amir Kirkwood and NYCEEC’s Curtis Probst joined Bafford.

• Keep reading and watch the replay.

Employee ownership rides a wave of economic populism – and pragmatism

Momentum for strategies that enable workers to share in the value they help create continues to build, despite a divisive political climate. “Ownership isn’t just about assets. It’s about agency, equity and opportunity,” said Lindsay Zizumbo of Sorenson Impact Foundation, which is funding initiatives to advance ownership opportunities (and supports ImpactAlpha’s coverage of the Ownership Economy). “It’s how we close the wealth gap, strengthen communities and ensure more people share in the success they create.” Like support for small businesses and community lenders, worker ownership resonates with political leaders on both sides of the aisle. “It’s radical pragmatism,” said Lafayette Square Institute’s Jack Moriarty. Moriarty and Zizumbo were joined by Malini Ramanarayanan Moraghan of the Essential Owners Fund, Apis & Heritage’s Michael Brownrigg, Ownership Capital Lab’s Alison Lingane and Social Capital Partners’ Jon Shell on this Call.

• Read the full recap and watch the video replay. 

Guarantees for muni bonds to lower the cost of capital for smaller cities (video)

Municipal bonds issuance hit record levels this year, but many smaller cities and rural areas remain boxed out of the market due to perceived risk and lack of top-tier credit ratings. Michael Gaughan of the Vermont Bond Bank, Lourdes Germán of the Public Finance Initiative, Damon Burns of Munivestor, Eric Glass of Clarion Call Capital and Brian Boland of Delta Fund joined ImpactAlpha’s David Bank on Agents of Impact Call No. 76 to discuss how credit enhancement tools can expand access to efficient capital. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supports ImpactAlpha’s Muni Impact coverage.

• Read the full recap and watch the video replay.